Something About Maps (blog): Maps in the Kitchen - Daniel Huffman shares an analogy he uses when teaching introductory cartography. Does "Cartography is like cooking?" work for you? Via Andy Woodruff.
Medium: Navigating the Digital City During An Outbreak - The author argues that Uber's response to the coronavirus, which included shutting down accounts of people who traveled in a vehicle that may have held an infected person, "is a matter of mobility justice." Via R. E. Seiber.

UW News: Interactive map shows worldwide spread of coronavirus - University of Washington geographer Bo Zhao built an interactive map of the coronavirus, "which updates every few hours with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the People’s Republic of China, and other government agencies, including those in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan." I had a look at the HTML and found Leaflet and data published by CARTO and ArcGIS Online. What can you learn from the HTML?

Twitter: The tweet answers the question: How long did it take and how many punch cards were needed to draw the outline of the U.S. in 1959? The answer is from Waldo Tobler via Tim Wallace. You can see the map here. Via Ken Field.

Twitter: R. E. Seiber shares what students learn when they "work with actual apps, services" on the Web.

Twitter: Harrison Cole shares some of the animated maps he uses to start class each day. Via Nick Bearman.

Clever Elephant (blog): Open Source Debate @ North51 - Paul Ramsey shares his opening and closing remarks from a debate on the merits of open source versus proprietary software. Ramsey supported the open source side. Unfortunately I was not able to find anything from Mehdi Amoul of LocalIntel, who spoke on behalf of the proprietary side.

Carnegie Mellon University (press release): Librarians Receive Grant to Explore Geography Education - "Emma Slayton and Jessica Benner, GIS Specialists at the University Libraries at Carnegie Mellon University, recently received a grant to explore the role of libraries in geography and GIS education from the National Center for Research in Geography Education (NCRGE)."

Foreign Policy Research Institute: FPRI Announces 2020 Fellows - There's a geography educator among the Education Program, History Education Fellow. "Tom Mueller is a Professor at the Department of Earth Sciences at the California University of Pennsylvania, where he has taught since 1999. He co-created and is the advisor for the Geography Major with a concentration in Geographic Information Technology. His interests include Geographic Information Systems (Computer Mapping), geography education, and world regional geography. He is especially interested in applying spatial theory to the real world with the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)." Per Tom on Twitter: "I am working on mapping tools for their educational lessons."

Lancaster Farming: UMaine Project to Use RFID Tags & GPS Technology to Track Farm Labor Efficiency - Johnny Sanchez, a University of Maine graduate student in Ecology and Environmental Sciences, has a small grant for his research project titled Automated Net Return Mapping: Using Inexpensive Technology for Maximizing Profit of Small-Scale Farms. He's looking at four different mapping solutions: pen and paper (system) as a sort of control, GPS, RFID tags to create a network throughout the farm, and an open-source farm tracking website.

Harrisburg University: HU research gives blue iguanas a fighting chance - Harrisburg faculty and students are using drones and imagery to help the Cayman Islands' blue iguana manage threats from green iguanas, domestic feral cats, and two types of rats.

Programs and Courses

NMSU: NMSU, UNM collaborate on New Mexico Ph.D. program in geography - "Starting in fall 2020, New Mexico State University students will have the choice to get a doctorate in geography through a joint program developed with the University of New Mexico." Since there was no PhD program in the state, the two schools got together to build one. When I used the announcement of this program as a title for an April 2019 newsletter, it prompted 2027 page views, one of the highest ever!

USGIF: USGIF did finally publish the release I noted last week related to program accreditation. It's dated Feb 10; other outlets published it back on January 30.

Everyone on LinkedIn probably gets generic connection requests from people they do not know. I get quite a few generic requests from students, likely because they know my name from of Esri's MOOCs. I do my best to be a good citizen on LinkedIn, but I'm wary of connecting with all who ask.

If a requestor can provide a few words about why we should connect, I'm likely to say yes. If a student wrote for example, "I took the Esri spatial analysis MOOC and want to learn more about GIS," or "I'm working on a GIS project with Andy Anderson at Amherst..." I'd connect in a minute. Let's be sure students know how to find some common ground to start a business relationship. It's an important soft skill!